Police confirmed that they had arrested about 30 people at an unsanctioned rally in the Russian capital, including Eduard Limonov, while Ludmila Alexeeva told the Interfax news agency that she had been arrested and then mistreated during her detention.

The protesters had gathered in Triumfalnaya Square to demand more freedoms and that the government to adhere to the Russian constitution. They carried signs reading, "Putin behind bars!" and had begun shouting "Freedom!" and "End Putin's reign!" when anti-riot police broke up the rally and made the arrests.

"I didn't have time to open my mouth, I just made a hand signal," the 82-year-old Alexeeva said on the radio shortly after her arrest.

Alexeeva is considered to be the "grand dame" of Russia's human rights movement and recently received the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought.

In 1976 she was a founding member of the Moscow Helsinski Group, the oldest human rights organization still active in Russia. The group was subject to harassment and arrests by the Soviet regime and Alexeeva left the USSR in 1977. She returned to Moscow in 1990.

Limonov is the founder of the outlawed National Bolshevik Party.

The activists have protested on the 31st of July, August, October and now December in a nod to the 31st article of the Russian constitution, which guarantees the right of assembly. All of the demonstrations have been banned and broken up.

hf/AFP/dpa
Editor: Chuck Penfold